First Cravath, then Skadden, then . . . Everyone Else?

Who knows? Maybe some juggernaut litigation boutique will throw its weight around and decide to double the Cravath bonuses. Or some other big firm out there will top the Cravath bonuses by just a bit, thereby resetting the bonus benchmark.

It’s still extremely early, but for now, it doesn’t appear that either of those things will happen. Earlier today, Skadden announced it was matching the Cravath bonuses in a memo that might start to look fairly familiar by the time bonus season wraps up. Click here for David Lat’s post over at Above the Law; here for our post from Monday on Cravath’s bonus announcement.

We’re guessing — again, this is only a guess — that managing partners from coast to coast were swimming in delight with Cravath’s news. It meant they wouldn’t have to scrape together their pennies (or dip into their own pockets) to pay whopping associate bonuses this year.

We opined, in this video on Monday, that the low bonuses could be attributable to a blunt acknowledgment that associates have little leverage. Granted, associates didn’t have a ton of leverage in 2007, when bonuses were much better, but now they’re really up against it. You quit Cravath or Skadden, what are you going to do? Beg, scrape and claw to get yourself a good in-house job? Go make two-thirds as much as a lesser firm down the street? The bottom line: a job at Cravath or Skadden with a lackluster bonus is still better than many, many, many alternatives.

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The Law Blog covers the legal arena’s hot cases, emerging trends and big personalities. It’s brought to you by lead writer Jacob Gershman with contributions from across The Wall Street Journal’s staff. Jacob comes here after more than half a decade covering the bare-knuckle politics of New York State. His inside-the-room reporting left him steeped in legal and regulatory issues that continue to grab headlines.

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